Give Thanks... Always

Visitation to some nursing home was not my cup of tea in the beginning. It's a new environment for me and sometimes something new can make me uncomfortable. I must admit that I was an unwilling participant at the beginning, but I pushed myself. Life is not always having fun. So at first, I thought I was doing some moral duties and treated it like a chore.

After several visits, I was wrong. I must admit that it's still not easy when I was around these nice elderly ladies, but at the same time I was also having fun. True that some can't even speak English. But I thought that's the fun of it, too. I did a lot of smiling, nodding, just trying to make them happy. I got some memorable moments too... As awkward as I already was, during the very first time of my visit, I was accidentally spited upon during feeding time. Now I can call myself a veteran and run for cover before that happen, hehehe.

The St. Theresa nursing home is a very nice place to visit. When I entered it the first time, I got a feeling as though I was back in time when I was so little and in front of me is this Catholic church with the bells and chants filled the air, and lush greenery filled the background. I can even smell the fragrant of previous lifetime when life was so much simpler. It's like I was watching some old 70's romantic movies.

The residents are sweet mostly. Probably because some of them I couldn't understand at all, hehehe. But there is this one lady who is such an inspiration, she can put my good life to shame. Her name is Bertha. I'm not sure how old she is, but when I met her the first time, she was doing her exercise on the small garden near her room. The first thing that you noticed right away was that she's crippled. Both her legs were already amputated and her hands were pretty much shriveled with only one pinky finger left on her left hand. But when we started talking to her, she only had gratefulness in her comments. She is one of the most positive person I knew. She encourages people around her, even to the likes of younger people like my friends and I.

Today I spoke to her and she told me that in everything always give thanks to God. WOW! She even managed to change a negative lady that Yihong's ministering to become a more hopeful person. She didn't let her handicap imprisons her in misery. She felt that she has a calling to be able bless people around her. Things that you learn when you least expected. I must be able to be more grateful in everything I have when somebody like Bertha can just say it lightly as if there's no cares in this world but God.

With some of the nice ladies after their Bible Study

That's me in between Ayong and Bertha

After the visit today, Danny took us to a good place to eat Yong Toufu. It's always nice to be able to hitch a ride in a car, hehehe. It's Danny's favorite, that he even took his clients/ colleagues to eat there and have to drive a long drive from Tuas (I'm not even sure where that is, but I just readily agree with everybody, pretending to be knowledgeable, hehehe). I must admit that the food is good, although I have to fight my way through just to finish a chunk of crispy fried tofu. Darn my braces.

Being with my Singaporean friends makes me feel as though I'm in some kind of Singaporean fave TV show, "Makan Place". We always in search for that nice place to eat and sometimes somewhere new. Want proof?

The before and after

And here's a picture of the restaurant's signboard. Oh and don't panic about that floating head... Jay always trying to be in all pictures, hehehe.

And as Anne's ritual when she's outside... always ready with one snap of a group picture.

Bernard (Jay's old school mate), Yihong, Jay, Waying, Danny and I